A new year

There's something that I really enjoy about my birthday being so close to New Year's and in the dead of winter. Usually its kind of a drag having a birthday so close to Christmas and being upstaged by Jesus. My friends are gone or distracted by family, a reminder that I don't have a relationship with my biological family, which I can deal with most other times of the year, but there's this visceral reaction that I think many of us have about "the holidays" whether we want to or not.
This birthday was upstaged by Arctic Blast 2008. Things didn't go as planned (do they ever??) and I spent more time at the Florida Room my birthday weekend than I care to admit, but what was wonderful was that my friends totally rallied and braved being covered in sheets of ice to come out for birthday celebrations.
Now that "the holidays" have passed and I'm settling back into a schedule filled with schoolwork and study dates, I am enjoying the newness of so much in my life. A new year, just turned 30, a couple of new friendships that I'm really excited about, the sharp air fills my lungs in the morning and wakes me in a way that is both assaulting and inspiring. My lungs, my lungs, my lungs began to hurt last week and I decided to stop smoking. It will be a week tomorrow and my lungs still hurt as the tissue starts to repair itself. I won't say that I quit smoking, I prefer to say "I'm not smoking right now" because it doesn't sound as scary and final as "quit." The truth is, I really like smoking, I miss it. I also know that I would be in pain if I smoked a cigarette right now and I actually cried the other day about not being able to smoke. Not being able to smoke in the bars has helped though, and my clothes don't smell disgusting when I come home from the bar, this is a good thing.
I've been excited about writing again and have been thinking about writing a lot more lately. I haven't dedicated a lot of time to writing in the last few years so its nice to feel on the edge of inspiration, like I'm holding a lit match in one hand and one of those metal sparklers in the other and slowly bringing them together, anticipating the reaction that's about to take place.